Azerbaijani editor Zakhidov freed; 3 journalists still jailed

New York, March 19,
2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison
on Thursday of Azerbaijani editor Genimet
Zakhidov, who served more than half of a four-year term on fabricated “hooliganism”
charges.

“We're relieved Azerbaijani officials released our colleague Genimet Zakhidov, who served 28 long months in prison in retaliation for his critical journalism,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on authorities to build on this positive step by releasing editor Eynulla Fatullayev and video bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, all of whom have been imprisoned for their journalism.”

Zakhidov, editor of the Baku-based, pro-opposition daily Azadlyg, told CPJ today that he will
resume work after a short break. He was released along with 61 other inmates
under a pardon President Ilham Aliyev signed on Wednesday in connection with the
Azerbaijani New Year, known as Novruz, which is being marked this weekend.
Zakhidov, the only journalist to be freed, told CPJ that he had not requested
the pardon. “I consider liberty my right,” he said. His conviction still
stands.

Three journalists are still in prison in Azerbaijan, according to CPJ
research.

Fatullayev,
a 2009
recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, and his family were
the targets of a death
threat this week. Fatullayev was jailed in April 2007, a month after he
published an in-depth article alleging that high-ranking officials in Baku were behind the 2005
murder of colleague Elmar Huseynov.

Fatullayev made similar allegations from jail this month, on
the fifth anniversary of Huseynov’s murder, which remains unsolved. Following
publication of the allegations
in the local press, an anonymous caller phoned Fatullayev’s father and told him
that he and his son should “shut up once and for all” or “the entire family
will be destroyed.”

On March
10, a Baku
court upheld the convictions of independent video bloggers Emin
Milli and Adnan Hajizade, imprisoned on trumped-up charges of “hooliganism”
and “inflicting minor bodily harm.” The bloggers have been jailed since July
2009 after they were attacked in what CPJ determined to be a staged brawl. They
were charged and tried in proceedings replete with irregularities.

Genimet Zakhidov had been jailed under remarkably similar circumstances
and on identical charges.